News

Prosecution concludes murder case against Mehserle

By Paul T. RosynskyOakland Tribune

Posted:
06/21/2010 01:25:45 PM PDT

Updated:
06/21/2010 06:47:41 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES — The prosecution concluded its murder case against former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle on Monday, ceding control of the trial to defense attorney Michael Rains, who will begin presenting evidence today in hopes of convincing a jury that his client did not intentionally kill Oscar Grant III.

Deputy District Attorney David Stein notified the court at the close of business Monday that he had completed his initial phase of presenting evidence and witnesses to prove Mehserle intentionally fired his gun at the back the unarmed 22-year-old Hayward man early Jan. 1, 2009.

Stein's case against Mehserle lasted seven days and included 26 witnesses and dozens of pieces of evidence. That evidence included six video recordings of the events that preceded and followed Grant's killing, three of which captured Mehserle pulling his gun from his holster, aiming it at Grant's back and pulling the trigger.

Besides the videos, Stein's evidence relied heavily on testimony from expert witnesses who discussed police training techniques and informed the jury about the proper way an officer is supposed to respond to various situations.

Stein also called to the witness stand Marysol Domenici and Anthony Pirone, the first two BART police officers who responded to the Fruitvale BART station after a report of a fight on the train. Both have been fired by the BART Police Department.

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On Monday, Stein ended his case with testimony from the operator of the train that carried Grant to Fruitvale from San Francisco, where he and his friends had gone to watch fireworks. The last pieces of evidence in Stein's case also included an audio recording of the radio transmissions made by BART police officers as the events on the station platform unfolded.

The recordings begin at the moment officers were notified to respond to a call about a fight on a train and ended, more than a half-hour later, with a recording of a lieutenant notifying dispatch that he was taking Mehserle back to the police headquarters.

Despite resting his case, Stein still will have an opportunity to provide the jury with additional evidence in the rebuttal phase of the trial after Rains has completed his defense of Mehserle.

Stein's decision to rest his case against Mehserle sparked a routine motion by Rains asking Perry to dismiss the case based on a lack of evidence to prove the charge of murder. In most cases, attorneys would argue the motion before the defense begins presenting its evidence, but Rains agreed to reserve argument on the motion until he has completed presenting the defense's evidence.

Rains told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Perry on Monday that his first witness will be a San Leandro police officer who used a Taser on Grant in 2007 when he resisted arrest during a traffic stop.

Although the officer saw a gun in the car with Grant and two others, the jury will learn only that the officer saw "contraband." The officer will testify, Rains said, that when he saw the contraband, he immediately pulled out his gun and asked everyone to put their hands in the air.

Grant refused, the officer will testify, and took off running. The officer chased Grant and eventually used a Taser on him when Grant resisted arrest and refused to show his hands to the officer.

Rains has argued that Mehserle intended to use his Taser on Grant for the same reason but accidentally pulled out his gun.

Perry is allowing the San Leandro officer to testify because, he ruled earlier in the trial, Grant's resistance to arrest was a relevant fact in the murder case against Mehserle.

Rains also is expected to call a video expert who has dissected the recordings of the killing and can testify about the motions Mehserle made in the seconds before he fired his gun.

In a pretrial hearing last month, that video expert testified that his frame-by-frame analysis of the videos shows that Mehserle appeared to be making motions with his hands that were consistent with an officer who thought he had a Taser in his hand.